Sky High After Dark

"I doubt that," Aron replied as he pulled down his mask. "Veil patch the coordinates to the jet bike."

"Understood." The flapping of Aron's coat tails were the sound of destiny as he raced down the tunnel as he raced to confront his fate.

******

Sanski Most, Bosnia...

It was late in the afternoon the battle was heavily engaged as Aron fell through the air. His high powered lasers rained down as his family battled the supervillains that guarded the compound while the European forces dealt with the non-superpowered. Aron knew his family would try to stop him for what he was about to do. Yet he knew he was the only one that could stop what they had planned.

"Veil. Before you say anything upload the audio file to the mainframe," Aron commanded as the earth below him cratered as he landed.

"Yes Void. Shall I send the bike back?"

"Yes. And Veil?" Staring through the smoking hole in the man's forehead. Stepping over the body as more came to stop his advance. He wasn't withholding strength as Aron sent men flying each and everywhere. Knowing the force of the impacts many wouldn't be moving ever again. Then again, they were terrorists he doubted anyone would care if there was one less terrorist in the world. Especially the kind that was out to destroy the world.

"Yes Void?"

"It was a pleasure to meet such an AI. Now I have one last command for you. Transfer your program back to the mainframe you're too valuable to lose." It always amused him the amount of ammo thugs used when they knew no amount of bullets would stop him and still they try.

"I cannot Void. I will stay with you."

"I'm not even going to ask, doubt you'd answer," Aron muttered as he pushed the doors that lead to the main area of the complex. His eyes narrowed as he heard the winding sound as whatever the power source was started its build up. "Tie me into the others."

"Go ahead Void."

"Everyone retreat, the world needs heroes, they need you," Aron said, staring down the mastermind of it all.

"No Aron! I will not leave you!" Vera shouted over their coms.

"You will," Aron replied as he watched as the man phased in and out of reality. "Veil cycle the frequency of the pistols," he directed knowing he wouldn't be able to harm him, his weapons might be able to destabilize the man's grip on this plane of existence.

"No son, we will not leave you," Noah said, knowing they had to finish up with the villains as quickly as they could and get to Aron's side.

"You will," Aron spoke once again.

"No Aron, we will not leave you! Don't you go talking like you're going to die!" Lyla's quivering voice resounded over the line.

"I'm the only one who can stop this. I've told you I'm not a hero, yet even I can't overlook this. When this is done the world will still need heroes, they will need you," Aron said, cocking his head as the man just stood there as he fired shot after shot until... watching how Veil automatically switched to a frequency like she already knew. Then watching and listening to the man's wail as he fired laser bolts repeatedly through his body until there wasn't enough of his essence left to reconstitute himself on their material plane. "Chery get them out of here, the farther the better," Aron spoke as his fist clenched as his boots resounded on the metal steps that led up to the control panel.

"Is this really what you want Aron? There's still time, I know if you and Aminah work together you can stop whatever it is," Chery said, trying to talk sense into him.

"No there isn't," Aron replied, noticing that the count down has begun. His fingers working quickly knowing he couldn't stop the machine he could, however, overload the power source and blow it, and mostly likely him as well, to bits. "It's too late. Good..."

"Aron!" Vera screamed as they all watched the complex explode. The chucks of concrete struck the ice wall Troy had quickly put up as the burning rubble rained down around them. Her mind flashed back to the day he was born. The first time she held him in her arms. The shock on her and Noah's faces at Aron's first words. His first steps, the hugs he would give her as he wrapped his arms around her legs. The way he would run around the house. Her fists slammed down with such force causing a gaping fissure to race across the ground knowing all she had now were memories.

"No Aron, no." Lyla crumbled to her knees as her tears ran down her cheeks at the flaming wreckage all around her.

"You can't be harmed!" Isabel growled before taking flight. "Where are you Aron!?" She flew franticly around looking for his body.

"We need to regroup, wait for the team to sweep the area for radiation... sis I know you want to go in there. But we need to make sure the site is safe," Chery said, seeing the defiance in Vera's tear laden eyes. "Isabel fall back, we're retreating."

******

Somewhere in a grassy field outside of Metaville, 1940...

Aron groaned as he fell face first into the moist, overgrown field. A layer of ice coated his body from his time being stuck; trapped between dimensions. Lifting his head as his eyes fell on a pair of boots before Aron blacked out.

"Void, do you think this wise?"

"Wise? Probably not, yet the time line is secured for now, and no sense of him going through it all over again," the strange voice spoke as he hoisted Aron's body to his shoulders.

"Yet the possibility of the two of you in the same place is..."

"I know Veil, why do you think I've been working on that for the past twenty years," the man argued. "Plus, if we can send him back before the Pauli exclusion begins to start. Then he doesn't need to worry about losing his powers."

"Still, this doesn't seem wise Void."

"Who ever said I was wise," the man chuckled placing Aron's body into the back of the '40s Lincoln Ford 40 special speedster.

"Honey, what's going on?" asked a late thirties woman as she walked down the stairs as she tied her robe closed as the mysterious man walked through the door.

"Oh, you know strange things are about," his smile was revealed as he slowly pulled off his mask, "nothing to worry about honey," Aron said, smiling at his wife of the last twenty years.

"Why does he look like he's wearing your suit?"

"You really want to know?" Aron asked, with a coy smile as he walked into the living room.

"Of course, I do." Gasping as Aron pulled off the strangers mask. "He looks like you, why does he look like you?!"

"Because Carol, he is me, and I am him, to a degree," Aron said, seeing the confused look on his wife's face. "You know how I came stumbling in to that diner all those years ago?"

"Of course, I do. We all thought you were addled going on about cell phones, computers, this... internet or whatever it is," Carol said, her eyes darting between the two of them.

"Well honey, what you don't know is in the future I along with my family went to stop this device that this group was using to try to break through the dimensions in turn which would destroy the Earth in the process. Yet I at the time had powers, like this version of me still does," gesturing to his younger self, "after I set a feedback loop in the device the explosion ripped a hole in the fabric of reality which tossed me," pointing at himself, "back into the twenties. The same thing would have happened if I hadn't pulled this version of me from the timestream."

"Then wouldn't that..." Arching an eyebrow as Aron shook his head.

"The fact that we are here having this discussion is proof that the time line is still in place."

"Then why didn't you ever go back?" Carol asked, stepping closer to her husband.

"Wanted to at first, yet I had no means to do so, until now that is," Aron said, pulling Carol close to him. "Then I met this rather odd woman," seeing Carol's cheeks heat, "a woman that reminded me of someone I could never see again."

"Who?"

"My sister, I think she inherited her powers from you," Aron said, with a twinkle in his eyes.

"You're sister from... the future?" Carol inquired, as she ran her hands down his arms. She knew that he once had powers yet she could never figure out why he had lost them in the first place. "Tell me about them?"

"I can't. It could alter the time line and I might never be born," Aron stated as he brushed his thumb along Carol's cheek. "But I can say this, through us, we'll give rise to some great heroes."

"Then what are we going to do with him?" Carol asked, looking over at the younger version of her husband.

"We send him home."

"Dad, who's this?" Henry asked, appearing out of nowhere. "Why does he look like you?" he asked, turning to look at his father.

"Long story Henry, why aren't you in bed?" Aron asked, in a fatherly voice.

"You know Henry won't sleep when you go off somewhere," Carol said, in loving voice. "You are his hero you know," she said, lightly plucking his lips with her own.

The younger Aron's eyes snapped open he stared, confused at a face he had only seen in days past. Then to the woman that stood... "Impossible?!" Aron muttered into his mind.

"You aren't seeing things," the older Aron spoke, "I think you and I should have a chat."

"Come Henry, time to get you to bed," Carol said, holding out her hand to her son.

"But..."

"No buts young man, it's late, and you should have been in bed two hours ago," Carol said, sternly.

"What the hell is going on here?" Aron asked, wincing as he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the couch.

"Not here, we might be overheard." The older version of himself said as he walked towards the hidden elevator he had built himself. "Come on," he said, as the doors rolled open. "I know the pain is bad, odd given how you (me)," smirking at his younger self, "aren't supposed to feel pain. That's the effects of being trapped outside of time. It was the same for me when I was spit out in the twenties." Inserting a long, rectangle carbon nanotube key into the hidden key slot in the control panel taking them down to sublevel three.

"What am I doing here? Why are you, me, whoever you are helping me?" Aron asked, trying not to be freaked out how much he looked like his father as he grew older.

"I pulled you out early to send you home. Unless you want to spend your days in the land before the microchip? Only after I had ensured the time line would unfold as it should. As to why? You're powers haven't faded yet, as mine did, plus can't skip out on the kids."

"Wait. Wait. So... I became my own great-grandfather?!" Aron groaned, running his hand down his face at the time paradox he was facing.

"Come now, after all the hints you and I know happened you didn't suspect that we were one and the same."

"Yeah... I know my own circuity when I see it," Aron sighed.

"Good. Then I don't have to explain time paradoxes to you."

"Please no, I don't need another headache," Aron muttered rubbing his temple.

"Agreed. Now we can't linger on small talk the Pauli exclusion could happened at any moment." Aron tilted his head at the sight as the doors rolled open.

"Huh?!" Aron huffed. "You actually built it?"

"Yeah, lots of time on my hands, pardon the pun. Along with everything else in here," the older Aron said leading his counterpart through the third floor. "Including this." Bringing them to a stop in front of the time portal that the older Aron had spent years building.

"And what exactly is this... that I'm looking at here?" Aron asked, his eyes running over the metal circular ring just high and wide enough for a man to pass through.

"Think of it as a time tunnel connecting two points through time. Although I can't pin point the exact time, day, haven't worked that bug out yet, but it will be within the week of the explosion."

"So where is thing going to spit me out?" Aron asked, watching his counterpart flipping switches powering up the device.

"Here, just sixty years into the future. Told you this is a tunnel; this only works one way. Keeps you from trying to come back. Once you're through this time 'machine' and back in the present it will fry the connections once you're through. And no, I won't be joining you, we can't occupy the same space in time. Hence why we aren't having a long family meet and greet and why the limited contact."

"Right, the less they know the better," Aron nodded in understanding.

"Now you should have this, you might find it useful," the older Aron said, as he handed over the key. "Tell Mom and Dad... never mind, I'm sure they know," he stated patting his younger self on his right arm as the connection was established. The red-orange light filled the area as Aron stood in front of the tunnel as he looked back at himself.

"You know..."

"Yeah, I know. Been here too long, even if I went back now it wouldn't stop the phase shifting that caused me to lose my powers in the first place. And I know how I die, I am you after all, just from a different time. Let's not get into that, that would be confusing."

"Yeah, totally."

"You best get moving before the power drains and we both don't want to be here when that happens. Hey, when you get back try not to be an ass to them. Twenty years here alone makes the mind ponder on what was lost."

"But they make it so easy to do," Aron groaned tossing his head back before stepping into the tunnel. Hearing his counterpart's chuckle before the event horizon closed behind him.

******

For six days Vera laid on her bed, inconsolable in her grief, unable to save her own son. Noah too had sank into his depression as he sulked in the living room re-watching their son's exploits. Lyla laid curled on her bed hugging the small stuffed bear that Aron had won for Isabel when he was seven. Isabel and Troy along with the rest threw themselves into protecting the city. Yet once they had returned they too found themselves delving into their own grief. Aminah was always found in the lab trying to find a way to bring him back. Tazia would retreat down to the basement as her hands rested her stomach as she would stare down at the bed they conceived their child on. The rest tried to keep the house running in that dark hour, however, without Veil they were limited in what they could do around the command center.

"Come on sis, you can't waste away in here," Chery said, as she leaned against the doorframe of Vera's bedroom.

"When you," she sniffed, "lose your son, then you can tell me," another sniff, "how long I can sulk," Vera hissed as she glared her sister before rolling over.

"Vera I know losing Aron is a terrible thing to experience," Chery said sweetly, sinking down onto the bed. "But the city needs Vemvendon. The people need the hero they've come to place their trust in,"

"Now I know how Aron felt when Mom and Dad died. No one will ever know just what I have lost, what we have lost. No one will know that my son, my baby, gave his life to save this world!" Vera growled not bothering to look at her sister.

"But we do, we will always..." Chery's head snapped towards the door then down to the bed as it shook beneath her.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" Alarms rang out as an automated voice spoke over the speakers that no one knew were built into the walls of the home Aron had built long ago.

"Chery?" Vera's voice was dark and cold as she rose from her bed. "This intruder better run before I find him or her."

"Mom what's going on?" Lyla asked, stepping out of her room. Not enjoying the look she saw in her mother's eyes. Then just as quickly as the alarms started all was silent causing the three of them to rush towards the elevator. Only to come to a screeching halt as the wooden panel slid out to reveal those silver doors. Vera held out her arms to keep her family back and to shield them should whoever was in the cab might pose a threat to her remaining family. Her eyes inched wider and wider as something... something that couldn't be.

"A-A-Aron?! Aron..." Vera didn't want to believe her eyes as her son stepped out of the elevator.

"The news of my demise has been greatly exaggerated," Aron said, with a smirk on his lips. Watching his mother's hands flying to her mouth, her eyes quivering along with his father's and everyone else's as they all stared at him like he was a ghost. "Mom, can't breathe!" Aron gasped as Vera embraced him in a crushing hug as she spun him around the room.

"What happened to you?" Noah asked, after everyone had their 'welcome back from the dead' reunion with his son.

"Not here," Aron said, wondering where Sara had hid her bug. His fingers wrapped around the key that his past-self handed him just before he stepped into the machine. "I think you might find this enlightening," he said, looking at his brother.

"Me?" Troy asked, confused.

"You," Aron nodded as the elevator doors opened. Feeling rather cramped in the cab as all eleven of them were pretty much like sardines in a can.

"Aron what's that?" Lyla asked, as she eyed the strange object in his hand.

"You'll see," Aron said, blowing his sister a kiss whose face became flushed as he inserted the key into the hidden slot just like he had seen his counterpart do.

"Aron, where are we going?" Tazia asked, as she peered over Aminah's shoulder, she could feel her sister trembling to get at Aron just like she was.

"The third level," Aron said, matter-of-factly. Hearing his mother gasp behind him.

"When did we ever have a third floor?" Neil asked, to which his brother nodded along.

"There's always been a third subfloor, I just locked it off until now," Aron said, fighting back from bursting out in laugher at the looks on their faces. "I am Void after all," he stated as the doors rolled open.

"That is correct you are Void."

"Veil! I've missed you!" Aminah cried joyously at the sound of the AI's voice.

"I... thank you, Aminah."

"Oh my..." Aminah's eyes widened at the sight before her.

"What do you think?" Aron asked, looking at Troy.

"W-w-what?!" Troy stammered.

"You wanted to go into space, well the past me built this along with everything here..."

"Aron I think an explanation is in order," Vera cut in her eyes running down her son's body as everyone else surveyed the items all around them.

"Aron what did you mean by your past self, and what happened to you after the explosion?" Lyla asked, her eyes running down her brother's back.

"I don't really remember, I only had seconds to create the feedback loop before the device went operational. Afterwards... it's pretty much a blank until..."

"Until?!" Noah promoted.

"Until I woke up on a couch in this very house," Aron pointed upwards. "And guess who I saw when I woke up?" he asked, looking over at his mother.

"Yourself," Aminah answered.

"A twenty year older version of myself, that's true, but I saw someone else, someone you all know very well," Aron said, his eyes running over the ship as he felt his mother's, uncle's, and aunt's eyes on him. "I saw grandpa... or I should say my son." Gasps rang out unable to believe what he was telling them. "That would make me your grandpa," Aron said, looking over at his mother, "and you're great-grandfather," looking over at his siblings. "So you better respect your elder," he teased.

"But how did you get back if you were sent back through time?" Aminah asked, inquizzitively.

"From what my counterpart said, he's worked on that," pointing to the device, "for the twenty years he was there. Yet he stayed behind because he had to, otherwise..."

"We wouldn't be here," Tazia filled in for him to which Aron nodded.

"He just hadn't figured out how to send me back at a specific time."

"Does it still work?" Aminah asked, wanting to see her father once again.

"No. The other me made it so when he sent me back it would become inoperable. Also it only worked one way to bring me home." Huffing as his mother threw her arms around him.